Welcome, Fifth Graders!

When 63 fifth graders from Dearborn Park Elementary School "go to college" at Seattle Pacific University on Wednesday, May 4, they will be greeted by an alumna of their elementary school who is now enrolled at SPU.

Christine Palpalotoc, 17, of Beacon Hill, will talk to the fifth graders about what led her to think about college. Palpalotoc came to the SPU campus before the annual “go to college” day was created, and is one of the first Dearborn Park Elementary School graduates to be admitted to SPU.

During the day, each pair of fifth graders will be accompanied by an SPU education student. The fifth graders will participate in an investigative science activity, go on an information hunt in the SPU Library, take a music class, participate in a physical education course (otherwise known as gym class), and eat lunch in SPU’s “all you care to eat” dining room, Gwinn Commons. The day concludes with a brief presentation titled “College Is a Plan, Not a Dream,” when Palpalotoc will talk to the students. This seventh annual event is a sponsored by SPU’s School of Education and the Lilly Foundation, with cross-campus contributions coming from Undergraduate Admissions, on-campus dining partner Sodexo, the SPU Library, and the music, physics, and physical education departments.